Ten Days Left!

Happy Monday everyone!

I just glanced over at my calendar and oh my goodness!  There are only 10 days left before the end of the 2012-2013 catalog!  Yikes!  So today I think I'll point out some "must-have" products that you'll need to order before the end of the month.  In doing so, I'll show you several cards using these products, just to jog your memories. First of all, I'll show you the fun Soda Pop Tops that were so popular in the spring catalog that Stampin'Up! couldn't keep them in stock.  By the way, they are on back order right now, but you can still order them and they should start shipping on May 30th.

Did you make this card at one of my Sale-a-bration stamping parties??  I just love the silver bottle tops and the great accent they make on a card (#129388, 3.95 for 16... 8 each of two sizes).

If you're going to order the bottle tops, you might as well get the petite little stamps that fit inside, such as this wreath and bee.  That set is called Collage Curios (p, 24 of the spring catalog, $15.95 in clear mount).

The next product that you need to order is the Flower Trim #126869, 6.95 for 2 yards.  Let' see if I can find a card in my picture collection...  oh, here's one!

I just love this soft and pretty flower trim.  I'm so disappointed that it is NOT in the new catalog, and I'm hoping that it will be listed on some sort of "carry-over sheet.  

A couple of other "must-haves" from the spring catalog are the Rain or Shine stamp set (the one with the fun umbrellas... a perfect set for Oregonians!, #126777, $15.95 in clear mount) and the adorable Oh Whale set (# 129132, $16.95 in clear mount)

.  Here are some cards to refresh your memory on those two sets...

Oh, and one last thing you need to order...it is sort of hard to see in these two photos above, but the cute Cloudy Day embossing folder #127022, $7.95 is going away as well.  Again, if you're an Oregonian, you know we practically have a monopoly on clouds, so what a perfect background texture this will make for your cards!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget to come back on Wednesday.  I'm working with some new products and I should have card for you showing some of the new In-Colors and a new stamp set or two.  

Have a smooth Monday and I'll look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

Hugs,

Susan

Remembering my Mom...

Hello Stamping Friends,

I'm sorry I missed posting on Monday and Wednesday, but here I am, back with you again on Friday.  I got a phone call last Friday from my sister letting me know that my mother had suffered a small stroke.  At first it didn't sound too serious, but then another call the next day confirmed that I needed to fly down.  My mom  passed away peacefully on Tuesday evening.  She was 97 years young.  She was attended by some wonderfully skilled hospice nurses, who kept her pain-free and peaceful.  My mom was an amazing role-model for her children and grandchildren and of course we're saddened by her loss.  But more importantly, we are inspired to live the way she lived--joyfully, energetically, boldly, lovingly, generously, compassionately, and adventurously.  She was quite a character!

Since I haven't been home long enough to stamp with my new goodies, I'm going to show you one of my favorite stamp sets that you absolutely NEED!  If you don't have this set already, you need to order it quickly, before it is gone forever.  This is a classic set that I will not be selling in my garage sale, so please don't wait and think you'll snag it there.  If you are a fan of fall, nuts about autumn, or loopy about leaves, then send me a quick email and order this set today.  I will be putting in an order after my Fabulous Flowers class this coming Saturday, May 18th, so if you'd like to avoid the $6.95 minimum shipping charge and add it to my class order, you are welcome to do so!

Oh, I guess maybe I should show you the card, you think?

You might have made this collage-y card at one of my fall parties last year.  I just love the way this turned out! The shadow stamps which form the background were made by trimming pieces of leftover rubber into rectangles.  Then I just adhered them to some clear blocks, inked them up with So Saffron ink, and then stamped the focal panel with them to give a structure or skeleton on which to hang the other images.  I love, love, love the French script stamp in this set, as well as the splotchy dots which give paper a wonderful vintage look. There's even a cool Paris postmark!  Here are the details:

Stamp Sets:  French Foliage, page   86 , item #121166, $14.95 in clear-mount,  # 120845, $19.95 in wood.  The sentiment is from Tiny Tags, page 124, #118592, $16.95 in clear-mount, #118091, $22.95 in wood.
Ink:  Crumb Cake, So Saffron,  More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, Soft Suede
Paper:  Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White
Accessories:  the base of the card was embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder, page 189, #119976, $7.95.  The little tag was punched with the very versatile Jewelry Tag Punch, page 183, #117190, 12.95.  The tag is tied on with Linen Thread, page 173,  #104199, $4.50 for 15 yards.  By the way, the Jewelry Tag Punch is also on the retired list, so don't delay if you'd like to have this petite tag that is so very versatile.

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!
Hugs,
Susan

More fond farewells

Howdy there, stamping friends!

Here we are at Friday again and the month of May is just zipping by!  There's not much time left to decide which discontinued products we cannot live without.  We can order from the current "big" catalog and the spring catalog until the end of the month, so if you haven't taken a long, hard look at the retired stamps list, it might be a good idea to check it out.

If you attended my annual Retirement Party, you've already made this card.  But since most of my customers didn't attend, I wanted to show this card which features 5 retiring products.  Let me show you the card and then I'll go over the products that are going away.

Retired Product #1... Build a Blossom stamp set, p. 95

Retired Product #2  Blossom Petals Builder Punch, p. 185

Retired Product #3  Scalloped Square Bigz Die  (for the card base), p. 192

Retired Product #4  Scalloped Squares Duo Bigz Die, p. 193

Retired Product #5 Wisteria Wonder Ruffled Ribbon, p.172

I'm really sorry to see this fun flower set retire.  It is fun to use and you can make all sorts of flowers with it.  The matching punch makes it so easy to quickly put a 3-D flower together.  The colors I used are Wisteria Wonder for the petals of the flower, with Daffodil Delight for the center.  The green scalloped square behind the flower is Wild Wasabi.

My stamp room is starting to look a bit better, as I'm making progress on getting all the scrap packs put together.  Once I finish up some of these chores, I'll be turning my energy and attention to designing new cards for you using NEW stamps, paper, and accessories!  I've got some great new goodies to show you and I hope to have something new to share with you soon.  But please don't hold your breath.... remember,
I'm not that fond of blue.

Hope everyone will have a wonderful weekend, and for all of the mothers out there, may you feel loved and appreciated!

Hugs to all,
Susan

Bye Bye Birdie!

Hello Stampin' Peeps!  Hope your Wednesday is going smoothly so far!

As we're all well aware, there are quite a few (over a hundred!) great stamp sets whose days are numbered. At the end of May, they'll all go away... out with the old and in with the new.  I understand it is necessary for some of the sets to go so that there'll be room in the catalog for new goodies.  Nevertheless, I'm going to miss some of my favorites and the set I'm showing you today definitely falls into the favorites category.  I'm wishing that Stampin'Up! wasn't going to pull the plug on this beautiful set.

I've loved this set (Nature Walk) since I first laid eyes on it.  It was love at first sight!  I guess other stampers didn't love it as much as I did.  Anyway, I'm very sad that this beautiful set is being retired.  In case you didn't attend my Retirement Party last Saturday, this is one of the cards we made.  The card stock colors are Pool Party, Crumb Cake, and Very Vanilla.  I used Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso and Pool Party ink.  Oh, and this gorgeous embossing folder, Vintage Wallpaper is being retired as well.  The Crumb Cake strip was embossed using the Woodgrain embossing folder.  Thankfully, that folder is not being retired.  Some of the soft and silky seam binding in Crumb Cake adds a nice finishing touch.

I'm in the midst of lots of end-of-year chores, like making scrap packs out of discontinued DSP and card stock.  Oh my!  My stamp room looks like a huge scrap pile at the moment!  Guess I'd better run and get everything bagged up!  Thanks for stopping by today!  I'll look for you again on Friday when I'll have another classic card for you.

Happy stamping!
Susan

Fun in the Sun

Happy Monday to all the stampers out there!  Wow!  Wasn't that just the best weekend ever?  What fun to get out and about in the sunshine!

I had a great stamping weekend.  First I held my annual Retirement Party on Saturday and then on Sunday I had a fun Cinco de Mayo stamping party with my Hillsboro customers.  These fun ladies dressed up for the occasion  (see the photo on Facebook at The Classic Card).

The weatherman says the good weather is going to continue, so I thought a fun sunny card would be a good one to share. I received this card as a swap at our last Stamp2gether ( a monthly demonstrator event).  This diorama card was made by my talented downline member Janet Jones.  Isn't it just the cutest card ever?? It makes me want to drop everything and make a run to the beach!

The base of the card is Crumb Cake. The hole was punched using the 2 1/2 inch circle punch ( page 185 of the annual catalog).  The sky inside the card is Pool Party.  The "sand" is Crumb Cake which has been torn to give it an irregular edge. The ocean is Pool Party card stock that has been  torn and then sponged with some Island Indigo ink.  The clouds in the background were embossed on Whisper White with the new Cloudy Day embossing folder ( page 28 of the spring catalog), then cut out.  That cute sun umbrella is from the set Sweets for the Sweet ( page 49 of the annual catalog).  It is stamped in Lucky Limeaid.  The sentiment "just for fun" is also part of the Sweets for the Sweet stamp set.  The sentiment was punched out with the Decorative Label punch, given a quick sponge in the Island Indigo and then a sweet little knot of Whisper White Stitched Grosgrain was added for a little extra "oomph."  Thanks, Janet for allowing me to share this great card on my blog!  I'll definitely be making some cards like this for summer occasions.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Please come back on Wednesday as I've got more stampin' inspiration to share with you!  Meanwhile, may your Monday go by smoothly and without undue drama.  If you are lucky enough to have today free, be sure to spend a little time creating!

Hugs,
Susan

Another Favorite Bites the Dust!

Hello Stampers!

How did it get to be Friday already??  The days are just flying by, but that's OK with me because it means that we are getting closer and closer to our wonderful Northwest summer.  Speaking of summer, haven't the last few days been glorious?  I'm a happy camper in my capris and sandals and hopefully I won't have to put them away again!  But seriously, I know better.  I know that May and June can be rainy and even cold, so I'm not going to be too surprised when we get more gray and rainy days.  For right now, I'm just going to enjoy each sunny day that we get!  The Sherwood Farmers Market starts this weekend, as do many markets all around the metro area.  So that's a sure sign that summer is on its way.

Today I'm going to highlight another stamp set that is going away... the wonderful Quint-Essential Flower stamp that you can find on page 110 of the current catalog.  This single stamp only comes in the wood-mount format, but what a versatile stamp it is!  There are five different punches you can use to punch the various layers in this stamp and they're all shown at the bottom of page 110.  Check out my "take" on this set:

I used Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit ink, along with a little touch of Baja Breeze in the ribbon and the third layer of the flower. The designer paper is from the Comfort Cafe collection which you can find at the top of page 163.  The Fancy Fan embossing folder adds a little texture to the Midnight Muse layer.  For my card, I used only 4 of the punches.  I omitted the 3/4 inch punch.  You can use this flower with so many different sentiments and color combinations... it's quite the little workhorse.  Of course you should not use this flower on a guy card.  You know my rules... it just isn't done!

I've got to run, my friends!  The retirement party is coming up tomorrow, Saturday May 4th at 11am and although the card stock is cut and the supplies are all ready to go, I still have some cooking to do!  Have a super weekend!  Don't forget to come back on Monday for more stamping inspiration!

Happy May Day!

Hello Stampers and thanks for coming back to visit The Classic Card!

Yay, it's May!  Good weather is getting closer and closer.  And if we can believe the weather man, we might see some sunshine for the next few days!  That almost borders on the miraculous, doesn't it?

May is the last month of the 2012-2013 catalog, so it's time to think about ordering some retiring stamps.
I want to make sure that all of you know about some of my favorite stamps that are going off into retirement, and what better way to inform you than to show you some cards made with these great stamps?   A list of the stamp sets just doesn't do it... you need a visual, so here are a couple of photos for you:

This fun set is called Aviary and you can find it on page 101 of the current catalog. It is $17.95 in clear-mount.  The set contains an assortment of 4 bird cages and 4 cute birds, including an adorable little owl.  I won't bother going into the colors used on these cards, as the colors, ribbon, and DSP are discontinued.  I love this stamp set because of its versatility.  It makes a cute birthday, thank you, or thinking of you card.  And it's just cute, whimsical, and fun!

I hope you are planning on attending my annual Retirement Party this Saturday, May 4th at 11 am.  I'm going to serve you some delicious brunch-y food and you are going to make 2 wonderful cards with retiring products.  There is no cost to attend, but of course orders are encouraged and appreciated.  I've only got a couple of spots left, so if you'd like to join us, please email me at sjrstamps@gmail.com.

Have a happy sunny Wednesday and please come back on Friday for more stamping inspiration.

Hugs,
Susan